Education • Technology • Skilled Trades • Lifelong Learning
Christopher Molnar, Ed.D.
I have spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of education, technology, skilled trades, and technical problem-solving.
Although the jobs and technologies have changed over the years, one theme has remained constant: I believe some of the most effective education happens when academic knowledge is connected directly to practical experience.
That philosophy is not simply the result of my professional career. It is how I was educated from the beginning.
Where It Started
Education Through Experience
I am a proud graduate of Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where I participated in the school’s agricultural education program while completing a college-preparatory academic curriculum.
Much of my education took place outside a traditional classroom. I spent many mornings working on the school’s dairy farms alongside mechanics and dairymen and, of course, working directly with the animals.
Those mornings were as important to my education as the hours I spent in a classroom.
Working on a farm teaches lessons that are difficult to reproduce in a textbook. Equipment has to work. Animals have to be cared for. Problems have to be diagnosed and solved. Work has to be completed whether it is convenient or not. You learn responsibility, self-reliance, teamwork, mechanical skills, and the importance of doing a job correctly because other people—and sometimes animals—depend upon you.
Many of the lessons I learned on those farms still influence how I approach work, education, and problem-solving today.
That experience established a pattern that has continued throughout my education and career: combining academic knowledge with practical application.
Continuing the Journey
From Technology to HVAC/R to Education
My professional career began in technology. I taught myself programming languages and tools including C, SQL, SAS, and Visual Basic and spent a number of years working in software development and software quality assurance.
That work eventually led to MandrakeSoft, the company behind the Mandrake Linux distribution. My work there combined software development and packaging with technical education, including developing and delivering Linux training.
Following the technology changes of the early 2000s, I returned to school and put my computer, electrical, and troubleshooting experience to use learning the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration trade.
After several years working in the field as an HVAC/R technician and earning a contractor’s license, I returned to the school where I had received my trade education—this time as an instructor.
That transition from technician to educator became one of the defining points of my career.
Teaching and Leadership
From the Field to the Classroom
Teaching HVAC/R gave me an opportunity to combine technical knowledge with an interest that had existed throughout my career: figuring out how people actually learn complicated subjects.
I progressed from instructor to department leadership, helping grow an HVAC/R program from approximately 20 students and one instructor to more than 100 students and a seven-member instructional staff.
My responsibilities eventually expanded beyond HVAC/R. I became involved in developing distance and blended-learning programs, curriculum development, instructor training, educational technology, learning management systems, and the implementation of standardized curriculum across multiple campuses.
That work required more than simply moving classroom material onto a computer. It required thinking carefully about curriculum design, assessment, instructor development, educational technology, and the different ways adult students learn.
Those questions eventually became an important part of my own formal education.
Formal Education
Learning Never Stopped
Fielding Graduate University
Educational Leadership and Change
Area of specialization focused on alternative approaches to adult education, vocational education, educational systems, and organizational learning.
Northeastern University
Adult and Organizational Education
Graduate study focused on adult learning, education, training, and organizational development.
Northeastern University
Technical Communication
Completed while working full time and continuing a career in technical education and HVAC/R.
Porter and Chester Institute
Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration
Technical education that led to work as an HVAC/R technician, contractor, instructor, department supervisor, and curriculum leader.
While teaching full time, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Technical Communication at Northeastern University and then continued at Northeastern to complete a master’s degree in Education. I later attended Fielding Graduate University, completing a doctoral program in Educational Leadership and Change in 2010.
In many ways, that work brought my education full circle. The questions I explored academically at the doctoral level were closely related to something I had experienced firsthand years earlier at Milton Hershey School: people can learn extraordinarily well when classroom education and meaningful hands-on experience reinforce one another.
A Quarter Century
25+ Years of Experience
The individual positions have changed, but the common thread has always been understanding complicated systems, solving problems, and helping other people understand them.
Technology
Software development, software quality assurance, Linux systems, programming, technical support, and corporate technical training.
HVAC/R & Electrical
Field service, installation, troubleshooting, mechanical and electrical systems, contractor experience, technical inspections, and cause-of-loss analysis.
Technical Education
HVAC/R instruction, department leadership, curriculum development, technical writing, instructor training, and hands-on vocational education.
Educational Technology
Online and blended learning, learning management systems, distance education, digital curriculum, educational media, and technology implementation.
The Common Thread
Academic Knowledge + Practical Experience
I don’t see academic education and vocational education as competing approaches.
The strongest technical education draws from both.
Theory explains why.
Experience teaches how.
Good education connects the two.
Software taught me to break complicated systems into understandable pieces. HVAC/R taught me that theory has to survive contact with real equipment in the field. Teaching taught me that understanding something yourself and successfully explaining it to another person are very different skills. Educational research gave me a framework for understanding why different students may need different approaches to reach the same goal.
That combination of education and experience continues to shape the way I approach teaching, technical writing, troubleshooting, and professional development today.
Cmolnar.com
Why This Website Exists
Cmolnar.com has accumulated material from many different parts of my professional and personal life over the years, but education remains one of its primary purposes.
The HVAC/R and electrical training material, academic work, technical articles, software and technology information, and other resources represent different stages of a career built around learning something, applying it, and then trying to explain it clearly enough that someone else can use it.
I continue to believe that education does not end with a degree, certification, apprenticeship, or training program.
Technology changes. Equipment changes. Industries change. The tools we use to teach change.
Learning continues.
That is the idea behind much of what you will find on this site.